When it rained, an old woman, the portress, took pity on him; she took him into her den, where there was a pallet, a spinning-wheel, and two wooden chairs, and the little one slumbered in a corner, pressing himself close to the cat that he might suffer less from cold.

This answered my plan; and as she was about to remove her spinning-wheel, I begged she would have the goodness to remain and make my tea, adding that I liked the sound of the wheel, and desired not to disturb her housewife thrift in the least.

There are, indeed, not a few sticklers for the old-fashioned ways; not a few, who stoutly condemn the modern mania for accomplishments; who would banish harp and piano, and reinstate the spinning-wheel; honor the kitchen and dairy far before the drawing-room; close their houses to the dancing-master, as to a pestilence, and think money worse than thrown away, when given for instruction in French or Italian.